

NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS 



433 



dans la plenitude de ses manifestations 

 physiques et intellectuelles, d'abreger le 

 temps de la vieillesse, et de reculer la 

 mort a ses dernieres limites. VIVRE 

 JEUNE!" 



In connection with Dr. Voronoff's 

 work the readers of The Quarterly 

 Review op Biology will be interested in 

 the report of an official investigation, 

 recently issued by the Board of Agriculture 

 for Scotland, on his animal experiments. 

 A commission consisting of Dr. F. H. A. 

 Marshall and Dr. A. Walton of Cambridge, 

 and Dr. F. A. E. Crew and Mr. W. C. 

 Miller of Edinburgh, went to the experi- 

 mental farm in Algeria and studied the 

 material in the experiments there under 

 way. The commission was not satisfied 

 that Dr. VoronofF had proved his thesis, 

 either in the case of the rejuvenated bull 

 or the grafted rams. 



those who speculates and lets it go at that, 

 endeavoring merely to fortify the weak- 

 ness of his case by the luxuriance of his 

 verbosity. He researches, both by the 

 experimental and the statistical route, 

 and has brought to light in this way some 

 curious things about cancer death rates, 

 and plant cancers, in relation to cosmic 

 rays, as he supposes. We direct particular 

 attention to his most recent paper (at least 

 to come to our attention) in the Comptes 

 Rendus, n April, 192.8. No experimen- 

 talist will be in the least convinced by the 

 results there recounted, but perhaps the 

 paper will stir some one up to repeat the 

 experiments with some methodological 

 precision. Also the curious correlations 

 between cancer death rates and the 

 character of the soil discussed in the second 

 of the books here noted is interesting, but;, 

 alas, probably not significant. 



L'ORIGINE DE LA VIE. La radiation 

 et les itres vivants. 

 By Georges Lakhovsky. 



Gauthier-Villars et Cie 

 io francs 5! x 7I; 175 (paper) Paris 

 CONTRIBUTION A L'ETIOLOGIE DU 

 CANCER. 



By G. Lakhovsky. Gauthier-Villars et Cie 



zo francs Paris 



9! x ixf ; 12. + 4 plates (paper) 



Dr. Lakhovsky's general idea is that the 

 living cell is an elemental electric oscil- 

 lator, which absorbs and emits electro- 

 magnetic radiations. Life is nothing 

 other than the manifestation of this 

 oscillatory state of the cell. In a state of 

 health there is equilibrium between the 

 waves absorbed and the waves emitted. 

 Disease is electromagnetic disequilibration. 



This will sound pretty dubious to the 

 biologist generally speaking. But this is 

 to be said; Dr. Lakhovsky is not one of 



A SHORTER PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 

 By Emmanuel de Martonne. Translated from 

 the French by E. D. Laborde. 



Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 

 $4.00 5f x 8f; xvi + 338 New York 

 This book is primarily intended for 

 teachers of physical geography, but the 

 ecologists will find it useful in their work 

 as a reference work, and for assigned 

 collateral reading. Throughout the book 

 the author, who is regarded as the leading 

 exponent of physical geography in France, 

 never loses sight of the fact that his sub- 

 ject is physical geography, and each phase 

 is dealt with strictly from that point of 

 view. He has judged to a nicety the 

 amount of geology and physics necessary 

 to build up geographical principles. 

 Likewise, when he comes to the treatment 

 of that part of the book dealing with 

 plant and animal life his point of view is 

 strictly geographical. At the end of each 



